West Bengal residents keep out police, CPI-M

Kolkata, April 4 (IANS) A group of residents in West Bengal’s tribal-dominated Lalgarh region Saturday put up two check posts to prevent the police and Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) workers from entering the area. The check posts were put up by the members of the People’s Committee Against Police Atrocities (PCAPA) at Raigarh and Barotelia area of Lalgarh in West Midnapore district.

“We’ve heard about this development… that two check posts were put up in two different places near Lalgarh to prevent the police force from entering the region,” West Midnapore Superintendent of Police R.K. Singh told IANS, adding that action would be taken against the PCAPA members.

However, PCAPA leader Chattrodhar Mahato said they were keeping a regular watch on these two check points to prevent the police or any “hooligans” from the state’s ruling CPI-M from entering their villages and planned to set up two more check posts for the purpose.

Earlier, state Home Secretary Ardhendu Sen had said that before the Lok Sabha polls, the police would carry out a combing operation to sniff out Maoist rebels from the tribal-dominated Lalgarh region.

Trouble erupted in Lalgarh last November after the police arrested some school students and allegedly harassed tribal women after a landmine blast on the route of the convoy of Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and central ministers Ram Vilas Paswan and Jitin Prasada near Bhadutala area.

Later, the tribals, allegedly backed by the Maoists, dug up roads and placed big tree trunks across them, virtually cutting off the trouble-prone zone from the rest of the district.

They also demanded a public apology from the police for the alleged excesses committed against them.